A transform rule generator apparatus and method for use in transforming existing web pages (or other information) for display (or playback) in association with multiple Internet appliances such as computers, mobile phones, personal data assistants (PDAs), television set-top boxes, and the like.
The Internet is generally comprised of a distributed network of computers, wherein web servers on the network provide web sites that contain pages of information pertaining to various topics, businesses, and/or ventures. These web pages are provided to a web enabled device in response to a request for this information. Each web page generally has a unique URL (Universal Resource Locator) associated with it. A web enabled device such as a computer can send an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) request for this URL to the web server. The web server then returns the page of web information in the general format that has been created by the web page designer in creating the information layout for that website (and its associated pages).
When PCs (personal computers) and the like are being used to request the information via a browser, no translation of the information generally needs to take place, as a browser running on a PC (with a full display) is the typical recipient of such web page information. Many new web enabled devices, however, do not have the display capabilities of a standard browser running on a full-display PC. If a standard web page were to be displayed on a device without sufficient display space, the web page information might not be completely visible and/or information might be lost. The information might also spill outside the bounds of the smaller display area, and therefore necessitate excessive scrolling (via browser functions, or the like) in order to view certain parts of the information. In general, the web page designer has no control over how the web page content will appear on the display device.
As a result, web designers have found it necessary to provide for the display of information contained within web pages of a web site on multiple Internet appliances. One such approach (herein referred to as the xe2x80x9cduplicationxe2x80x9d approach) requires the web designer to provide a different set of web resources for each device type that might request the web page information. For example, the web designer would need to design and create a one set of web pages for a PC with a full display, another set of web pages for a mobile phone device, and still another set for a PDA device. This duplication approach might also necessitate the separate web servers and URLs for each device type. In general, the duplication approach has at least the following drawbacks and limitations: (1) The duplicative effort in creating so many different web pages is labor intensive, in that the approach needs extra web designers and programmers for each device type involved. (2) It is generally hard to change web page style, and a redesign is generally required of all the pages and/or programs. (3) It is hard to synchronize web content among different devices. (4) It is difficult to scale for many device types (as a redesign generally needs to be done for each device).
Still another approach is referred to as the xe2x80x9cgeneral program approach.xe2x80x9d According to this approach, some companies have developed general purpose programs to transform web pages for display on different device types. As such, the program generally transforms the web pages according to device capability. The transform is thereafter globally applied on all pages. At least one major limitation of this approach is that the web designer does not have sufficient control over the transformed layout. The transformation result generally depends upon the target device capability, meaning that the resulting page may not meet the requirements of the web designer.
What is therefore needed in the field of art is a web transformation device or tool that allows a web designer to quickly and conveniently generate a set of web pages via transformation rules according to a desired web layout. A graphical web page editor might be provided to operate on existing web pages, thereby allowing the web designer to graphically layout a page according to any of a variety of display characteristics or constraints. The graphical result might then be used to generate a set of transformation rules that can be stored and thereafter applied to the web page if a request comes in to a web server from a particular device.
The present invention provides an efficient and powerful apparatus and method for transforming existing web pages for display and use with a multitude of Internet appliances, such as PCs, mobile phones, PDAs, and television set-top boxes. The present invention provides a graphical editor that allows the designer to lay out device-specific web pages based upon original web pages that might comprise a web site. The editor thereafter generates transform rules for this specific device at the end of editing. When web pages are requested by the specific device, the pages are transformed dynamically with the set of rules and displayed on the requesting device in a format intended by the designers.
The present invention eliminates certain disadvantages associated with the prior approaches described above. For instance, there is only web page set for the web site. The designer instead creates a different set of stylized sheets for each device. Since there is only one set of content materials, there are no resultant synchronization and scalability issues. The present invention provides a graphical web page editor to generate the transform rules, which allows a web designer to have control over the final page result, no matter what device is used to request and display that material. The editor also reduces the time and cost involved in creating several sets of web pages and programs.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention allows for the web designers to design a transform result, such as content, layout, and file format by using the graphical web page editor. The editor allows for original web pages to be pulled up and graphically rearranged to produce the desired transformation display result.
Another aspect of the present invention provides for generation and saving of the transform rules as derived from the designed display result, and not necessarily the page content. The page content can therefore be changed, but the transformed result will be displayed properly.
Another aspect of the present invention allows the transform rules to be applied to new web content and different web pages. This further reduces web design time.
Another aspect of the present invention provides for the transformation of web pages in real time, according to the transformation rules, in order to adopt current web content and adjust to various device capabilities.
Another aspect of the present invention provides for an apparatus for the generation and application of a set of rules to transform source content into result content for a content receiving device, the apparatus comprising: a source content area for retrieving the source content; an analyzer for identifying separate elements within the source content and assigning an identifier to each element; a result content area providing selective placement of the elements according to a desired layout; a rule generator for generating a set of transformation rules for transforming the source content into the result content according to their selective placement; and an application device for applying the transformation rules to the source content that is requested by the content receiving device.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a graphical design apparatus for transforming source content to result content according to the display capabilities of a result content receiving device, the apparatus comprising: a first display area for displaying the source content; a second display area for displaying the result content; a set of graphical tools whereby the source content can be graphically moved with the tools from the first area to the second area to form a result layout; and a rule generator for generating a set of transformation rules to transform the source content to the result layout, the rules being formed according to use of the graphical tools and the result layout.
Another aspect of the present invention provides for a method for providing information content according to the capabilities of a receiving device, the method comprising: retrieving source information content; arranging result information content from the source information content according to the capabilities of the receiving device; generating transformation rules according to the transformation between the source information content and the result information content; and applying the appropriate transformation rules to the source information content when the content is requested by the receiving device.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed descriptions and studying the various figures of the drawings.